The Problem With Learning From Mistakes.

“The trouble with experience is that by the time you have it you are too old to take advantage of it”

So what’s a smart entrepreneur to do?

The answer seems obvious… Learn From Other People’s Mistakes. If you know what mistakes they made, then you’re less likely to repeat those mistakes…right?

Nope.

I’ve got 3 problems with the ‘Learn from other people’s mistakes’ concept.

You cant learn about success by studying failure. How much can you really learn about running fast, by studying slow runners? Not much (at best). These are two different things completely. Just because a failure didn’t advertise, doesn’t mean advertising is your smartest marketing option. Know what mean?

Failures often don’t know why they failed. So even if you tried to learn from from a failure, he probably doesn’t know the real reasons he failed. At best he can give you shallow ‘surface level’ reasons like “I didn’t have enough working capital’ – when in reality, the reason he didn’t have working capitol is what you need to know.

You cant attract success by focusing on failure. At a certain point, learning anymore about failure will bring it into your life. It’s the Law of Attraction. You get more of what you focus on. Why do you think kids often repeat the mistakes of their parents, even though they already know they shouldn’t do it – ie generational alcoholism.

SO again, what’s a smart entrepreneur to do?

You guessed right – Learn from other people’s success. That will do the trick.

Of course IT IS possible to learn from your own or other people’s mistakes…but that shouldn’t be a focus.

Some say, we learn the most from our mistakes.

That’s not a rule, just a common pattern. The reason is because most people are more aware of their failures than their successes – but not you…not anymore right?

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3 Replies to “The Problem With Learning From Mistakes.”

True that! As an aspiring entrepreneur who’s been ‘trying and trying again’ I have experienced how “learning from others’ mistakes” works NOT! But hey, it’s funny how the negative behaviours are the ones that people tend to adopt more easily- I guess that’s evidence of the 2% statistic!